


all so we could call ourselves safe

by TolkienGirl



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 50 Sentences, Angst, Fluff, Multi, One Word Prompts, Romance, Seasons 1 & 2, sometimes I snuck in two sentences CAN YOU BELIEVE, the whole shebang, title from Jericho Brown's 'The Card Tables'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 15:44:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16411325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TolkienGirl/pseuds/TolkienGirl
Summary: Fifty views of Hawkins, Indiana.





	all so we could call ourselves safe

  1. **Sometimes**



It isn’t like anyone is going to come up and punch him in the head and say, “Not over her yet, are you, Harrington?”—and he certainly, definitely, absolutely doesn’t wish that anyone _would_.

  1. **Believe**



Mike knows she’s out there, even if it’s the only thing he knows.

  1. **Gratitude**



The gaping, oozing grin that splits two worlds apart is in front of them, but her hand in his brings him back to a hospital room where the world didn’t fit together again.

  1. **Love**



It doesn’t matter if the mashed potatoes are runny, not in the Byers house.

  1. **Music**



Will’s pupils blown out, light and darkness, hard to know what he’s seeing—Jonathan cranks the speaker _up_.

  1. **Trust**



The scars on their palms are enough to keep them together, even when they decide to be apart.

  1. **Tradition**



“Why is Mike the dungeon-master?” Steve asks, and Dustin looks at him like he’s just dropped an F-bomb at Thanksgiving dinner.

  1. **Snow**



Silver winks on the gym floor (pretty), and they move slowly, slowly, so that the dance will never be over.

  1. **Hope**



Joyce swears she’ll tear the whole house down before she gives God and Lonnie the satisfaction of giving up on her boy.

  1. **White**



“You were gonna be a ghost?” Mike grins, and then—“We were the Ghostbusters. But we’d never have busted _you_.”

  1. **Adorable**



All her children are big-eyed and quiet and grown too fast; Karen presses Holly close.

  1. **Pattern**



Hard not to play it back, _like we’re in love, you don’t love me, it’s bullshit_ , when it’s beating in his chest like it belongs there.

  1. **Red**



Lucas thinks that Max’s hair looks like a bonfire, and he just needs to find the right way to tell her so she knows he loves it.

  1. **Dance**



“Music’s loud.” Hop growls, in the parking lot, and then, before he can lose his nerve, “Wanna give it a whirl?” (Joyce lights right up).  

  1. **Captive**



Will hates how it always takes him.

  1. **Watch**



“You like that, kid?” When El— _Jane_ —doesn’t answer, turning the heavy metal over and over in her hands, he adds, “It was my old man’s.”

  1. **Flee**



Will always tells them when to run.

  1. **Alarm**



At Christmas, one of the tree-bulbs fritzes out with a sizzle—and Joyce’s heart skips a beat.

  1. **Dying**



Barb should have gone home, Nancy murmurs, against a damp pillow. She should have just gone home.

  1. **Fan**



The Hendersons don’t have AC, and Tews chewed the cord of the box fan, and in the August heat Dustin misses Mews, even just a little (or a lot).

  1. **Seek**



If only Papa hadn’t made her reach out and touch it.

  1. **Past**



Yeah, Lucas can admit—girls used to be gross, but then…

  1. **Short**



When the kids ask about growth spurts, Steve just looks down on them and lies that he’s always been this tall.

  1. **Reflection**



Nancy cuts her hair because she’s tired of looking back at the same girl every goddamn day.

  1. **Coffee**



“Bitter,” El says grimly, brow scrunching up, and Hopper laughs. “Told you not to snitch from me.”

  1. **Sun**



In the summer, it’s so much easier not to be afraid of the dark.

  1. **Breathtaking**



Steve always thought he couldn’t breathe when Nancy looked _right at him_ , but breathing doesn’t get any easier when she’s gone.

  1. **Movie**



“Back…to the _future_?” El frowns. “How does that make any sense?”

  1. **Hands**



Jonathan just wants Nancy to say, _hold me_ , and sometimes, sometimes, she does.

  1. **Laugh**



The first time they let her come over for a D&D campaign, Max’s ribs hurt afterwards in a _good_ way.

  1. **Honesty**



Nancy doesn’t know how to tell the truth without cutting herself or someone else open.

  1. **Home**



The first night back in the cabin, El doesn’t even dream.

  1. **Travel**



“I know NYU is a long way away,” Jonathan starts, but Mom doesn’t even let him finish—“It’s what you’ve always wanted,” she says, and her eyes and tone brook no argument.

  1. **Water**



Strange how floating can weigh you down, down, down.

  1. **Two**



Lonnie left the old car, and the leak in the roof, and the debt, and the boys (the boys are all that matter).

  1. **Wonderful**



“Guess we’re like brothers now,” Dustin says, and what the hell else is Steve supposed to say but, “Guess we are.”

  1. **Beauty**



Looking into Mike’s eyes (and knowing that he’s looking into hers) is all she wants to do, forever and ever.

  1. **Blessing**



“We say grace in this family, now,” Karen orders tightly, and Nancy wants to ask, _What kind of mid-life crisis, Mom?_ —but she doesn’t.

  1. **Warm**



El likes campfires. They didn’t ruin those in the Lab.

  1. **Chocolate**



Nougat sticks a little in Dustin’s throat, now, so he’s turned his attention to Reese’s—that can’t go wrong, right?

  1. **Blanket**



Mike left it the same, for those three-hundred-and-fifty-three days, just in case she needed it (or maybe because _he_ did).

  1. **Stars**



“That’s the Swan,” Jonathan whispers, “And Cassiopeia.” Nancy almost asks which one is the lucky star, but then she doesn’t, because she knows that no lucky star exists.

  1. **Darkness**



Will waits until everyone else has disappeared, and then he tells Eleven, “I don’t think he’s gone. Just—trapped.” He hates that she nods.

  1. **Light**



“It’s a lava lamp,” Mike explains, to an unrelenting Hopper. “It’s cool, and she wants one, and it’s non-hazardous.”

“We’ll see, kid.”

  1. **Simple**



“I love you, Nance,” Steve said, over and over, and it really did seem like enough.

  1. **Past**



Joyce doesn’t know, exactly, why she never chooses Hopper. She needs to get on that.

  1. **Fall**



“I freaking hate this season,” Dustin observes gloomily, as the leaves crunch under their wheels, because hey, annual interdimensional bullshit will do that to you.

  1. **Blue**



“Is it…” El smooths down her skirt…“Your favorite color?” And Mike just says, “It is now.”

  1. **Eyes**



“We’ve all seen it.” Hop sighs, stubs out his cigarette, blows away the twirling ghost of smoke. “That’s why we believe.”

  1. **Sadness**



“We’re fine, aren’t we? Even after all this, we’re fine.”


End file.
